夏草の繁りのみゆく思ひかな
待たるるあきのあはれ知られて
待たるるあきのあはれ知られて
- Roma-ji
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Natsukusa no shigeri nomi yuku omoi kana mataruru aki no aware shirarete
- English Translation
-
Like the summer grass
only growing ever thick,
this love of mine, ah!
for the sorrow of autumn,
of your weariness, I foresee.
- Meaning
- Like summer grass my longing only grows thicker, as I come to feel already the sorrow of the autumn that awaits, the weariness of your heart.
- Commentary
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Love Poems 703
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love"
As summer grasses grow ever thicker, the poet's longing only grows. In the height of summer, already thinking of the pathos of the autumn to come, he feels in advance the pain of the beloved's heart growing weary of him. Aki joins autumn, the season, with aki, weariness or a changing heart, laying over the passing of the seasons his fear for where his love will end.
The next poem, 704, also makes aki carry both autumn and weariness, so the two poems stand side by side through the same pivot word.
First line, “natsukusa no”: summer grasses, sung as things that grow thick.
Second line, “shigeri nomi yuku”: only growing thicker, likening the swelling of love to summer grass.
Third line, “omoi kana”: kana is exclamatory; the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “mataruru aki no”: aki is a pivot word joining autumn with aki, weariness of a lover; ruru is spontaneous.
Fifth line, “aware shirarete”: re is spontaneous: the pathos coming home to me of itself. This returns in inversion to the upper verse.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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Koiraruru ukina o hito ni tateji tote shinobu warinaki waga tamoto kana
- Next Poem
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Kurenai no iro ni tamoto no shiguretsutsu sode ni aki aru kokochi koso sure